Famine in Rochester. BREAKING NEWS!

1) 0:32- the woman in the nice SUV who needs to feed her kids and her ONLY option is the popeyes chicken special

2) 0:52- "No chicken? Or are they just out of chicken?" This man is clearly perplexed. His first thought is that the ENTIRE chicken species has gone extinct. His second thought is that perhaps this particular Popeyes location has run out of chicken. This why people shouldn't talk on the cell phone and drive. It fucks with their reasoning.

3) 1:56- "I'm more disappointed than angry. you know, we've been looking forward to this day"

When I was 12, on a road trip with my family, we went to a KFC. All the white people used the drive-thru, all the black people walked inside. Everyone was staring at us; it was creepy. I don't know what was going on in that town!

So, all the Popeyes in the area run out of chicken and instead of interviewing a few different people, the news van ran to the black part of town to talk to angry black people angry because they couldn't get there fried chicken. Oh Masta! Naturally, people were upset at this reinforcement of stereotypes and angry people of all colors wrote the station. Here is the reporter's response.

Dumb ReporterThe idea of people up in arms over chicken was pretty funny. I think saying the word “chicken” over and over again was funny, too. Some of the things the customers were saying were hilarious, especially the woman who said the store should have had a trailer out back filled with “chicken on ice.”

What concerned me about the story was the stereotype of black people liking fried chicken. Everyone in our story was black. We interviewed a dozen people. Even though the suburban Penfield location also ran out of chicken, and even though a whole lot of white people also like fried chicken, I was worried some viewers would think we were doing the story because of the stereotype. I was worried we were reinforcing or making fun of the stereotype.

I think the story was a story because it was a consumer issue, customers were upset, and some customers were even laughing. The conflict was just so – human. Would I have felt better about it if we talked to white people, too? Yes. Should we have gone to the Penfield store, too? Maybe. On the other hand, do we ever pause when our stories are filled with only white people? Not often - and that's sad.

I was comfortable with running the story. It accurately reflected what happened on Lake Ave. tonight. When I get upset at a business, I am the first person to express righteous outrage. That said, I wish I hadn’t put the story together at such a late hour, because I would have loved to make a bunch of calls to get more opinions on the stereotype issue.

In fact, we never run out of Popeye's chicken in its home, New Orleans. Just had a great deal: Breast, Wing and a Biscuit for $1.99. I took advantage of that for 3 days. But their Red Beans and Rice is still #1.